A wide variety of paving stones have become known up to now. For example, DE 31 16 540 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,266 describe paving stones whose outer contour is shaped in such a way that they can mesh with neighboring stones.
By this meshing, they are secured against lateral displacement, as a result of which the stability of a paving stone bond laid from such paving stones is increased.
In the case of such stones, although the stability of the paving stone bond is improved by the positive meshing, joints running right through, in which for example grass or moss can grow for decorative purposes, are not possible. In addition, the rainwater cannot seep very well down into the ground through such a positively joined-together paving stone bond.
To combine the advantages of meshing teeth in the outer contour with the advantages of intermediate joints, a stone such as that described in EP 0 060 961 B1 was created.
This stone again has in its lower region an outer contour for meshing with neighboring stones, but in its upper third is stepped with respect to the lower region. The upper third has a quadrangular outer shape, which has a smaller extent than the lower meshed region. On the upper side of this quadrangular stepped region there is the walk-on face.
If such a stone is laid in a bond, it is secured by the meshing teeth in its lower region against lateral displacement and in the upper region there is sufficient space for forming joints.
However, in such a bond of stones there is the disadvantage that water cannot seep very well into the ground underneath on account of the outer contours in the lower region engaging positively in one another over their entire extent.
On the other hand, paving stones with lateral spacers for forming uniform joints between the individual paving stones have also become known already in a variety of instances. Such stones are described, for example, in DE 89 01 920, DE 87 00 821, EP 0 227 144 and DE 83 02 622.
In the case of all these configurations, the spacers are designed such that, during laying in a bond of stones, they are made to abut against only correspondingly abutting sides parallel to the side walls of the paving stones. They thereby abut either against the corresponding abutting faces of the spacers or of the side walls of neighboring stones.
Although such spacers provide the desired spacing between the side walls of the stones, they do not provide the latter with any additional hold with respect to a displacement parallel to the side walls.
DE 89 13 777 describes a paving stone with spacers in which the spacers have sloping, non side-parallel abutting faces for securing the stones against lateral displacement.
Although such a paving stone is adequately anchored against lateral displacement in its paving stone bond, such a stone has stone sides having varying designs, even in the case of a square outline. This means increased effort both during the production of such a stone and during laying in a paving stone bond, which entails a corresponding increase in costs in the case of both operations.
Finally, a paving stone with spacer which has in each case an outer structure serving for positive connection has become known from DE 90 00 928-U or DE 38 04 760 A1. These structures are, however, arranged in a complicated manner, in particular in the case of the first-mentioned document, and require extremely precise laying of these stones, which particularly in the case of machine laying does not occur.
The invention therefore has the object of proposing a paving stone with which on the one hand the formation of uniform joints and unproblematical seeping away of water are ensured and on the other hand, however, anchorage with regard to lateral displacement of the paving stone occurs, while at the same time to said stones are easy to lay.